Sad tale of all-gold forgotten hero

Whatever transpires at Rio, may those South Africans who win medals never became another forgotten Josia Thugwane.

It may well be the trickiest trivia question to ask anyone born on this side of 1996: Who is Josia Thugwane?

Those in high school may get lucky and recall an Olympics throwback episode, but those younger would surely wilt in wonder.

Josia? Is there a street named after him somewhere? Or was he an activist during the Struggle? Maybe he was a footballer?

Of course, those of us who still remember August 4, 1996 will tell you that Thugwane served up perhaps the most romantic of Olympic stories when he won gold in the marathon in Atlanta.

The sheer shock of it all rang around the world and we beamed a collective smile of pride because he was one of ours, even if we barely knew him.

Who is Thugwane now? He is a forgotten man, perhaps one of the most anonymous Olympic heroes of all-time, because we have neglected to share the tale in the same manner we speak of and Mark Williams and his brace that won the Africa Cup of Nations in the same year, or Joel Stransky’s drop goal that sealed the Rugby World Cup the year before.

Those memories, those highlights can flash up in a second in your mind or on the television screen, whether you are 12 or 85, because we have told them over and over and over again.

They are ingrained in our sporting vault of pride and no one can wipe them away.

Quite rightly, too. They were monumental feats which put us on the map at a time when South Africa was still trying to figure itself out.

Of course, decades after the birth of the new South Africa, we are still trying to figure ourselves out as a country.

The sporting feats of our greatest athletes are often the fragile glue that holds this complex country together, which is why it is even harder to fathom why Thugwane's story remains untold.

Tellingly, the man who came second to him, Lee Bong-Ju, is a national hero in South Korea, playing a key role in the development of future runners. He is a regular on television shows and even made a cameo in a music video.

So much for the saying that “No one remembers second place”.

Josia who? Was he a boxer, maybe?

Perhaps road running is just not as fashionable as sprinting and swimming and throwing and jumping and scoring.

But even as fashion goes, an Olympic gold medal should rank as the greatest bit of bling an athlete can ever wear. After all, you can’t even buy it. You earn it and then display it with a beaming pride for all to see.

Ryk Neethling’s Olympic swimming gold medal is prime real estate at Grey College to serve as inspiration to those who go there. And so it should be, because Neethling’s feats were the stuff of legends, moments that ought to inspire us all to be better, whatever the pursuit.

Who knows where Thugwane’s medal is now? The last we heard, he said it was stored in a bank, safe from the clutches of those who would sooner steal it and sell it for a dime, not knowing the long and lonely road he took to acquire it.

Perhaps it is sadly apt that Thugwane’s medal is not on public display, for his was a victory barely savoured.

Whatever transpires in Rio next month, may those South Africans who earn medals never become another Josia. No Olympic champion deserves that.

Josia who?